Speech by the Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, T.D., at the official launch of the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All in Ireland 2007, on Monday, 5 February 2007, in Dublin Castle at 2.45pm
It is a great honour for me to be here with you today to launch the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All in Ireland.
Introduction
Ireland is engaging in this initiative in partnership with the 27 other EU Member States, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
The common aims of the Year across Europe are to make people aware of their rights, promote equal opportunities for all and exemplify the benefits of diversity.
When the Oireachtas set up the Equality Authority, it gave it a mandate to provide information to the public and to promote equality of opportunity. The Equality Authority, in its role as national implementing body for the European Year has now set out an ambitious and challenging programme for the coming 12 months.
At the end of this year, we want everybody in Ireland to be aware of their rights to non-discrimination and equal treatment and their obligations to deal fairly with each other. We want to promote equal opportunities for all and we want to show how diversity benefits us all.
The European Commission published a survey on anti-discrimination last week which makes very interesting reading. It highlighted that awareness of the existence of anti-discrimination laws is still relatively low. Across the EU as a whole, only one third of citizens claim to know their rights should they become victims of discrimination or harassment.
The Irish Situation
The situation appears somewhat more promising in Ireland, with almost 40% of people stating that they know their rights in such instances.
However, these are not grounds for complacency. Almost 60% of the Irish population felt that discrimination on the basis of ethnic origin had become more widespread in Ireland over the past five years. Almost half those surveyed felt we could do more as a society to tackle discrimination effectively.
Of course, equality is about much more than legal rights. Fundamentally, it is about treating every individual with respect and fairness. While our legal system has an essential role, the ultimate objective is to change attitudes and behaviour.
Traditionally, in Ireland, we have a reputation for helping people less fortunate than ourselves - both at home and abroad. I have spoken before about how strongly I feel that we can make a difference by actively participating in the life of the society around us. Active citizenship arises from our sense of social concern as members of a wider community, which crosses boundaries of nationality and culture. This year, we should also challenge ourselves to find ways to increase the participation by people who are under-represented in civil society.
This European Year is also about facilitating and celebrating equality and diversity, involving the general public in open debate on the meaning of diversity and ways of valuing differences in contemporary Irish society.
This is very timely given the recent increase in immigration in Ireland. This is a welcome trend – a reflection of our economic success of recent years. But we must also be honest enough to acknowledge the challenge that change on this scale poses to us all.
I hope that we can use this year to have open and honest debate – and promote understanding about the benefits for us all from a more diverse Ireland.
It is only by using the potential of all our people that Ireland will be able to develop further socially, economically and demographically. Surveys show that a majority of Irish citizens think that people of a different ethnic origin than the rest of the population enrich the national culture.
The European Year of Equal Opportunities for All gives us a chance to make people more aware of the obligation on all of us to welcome newcomers to Ireland at this time of great change.
Promoting Diversity
There is also a good business case for promoting diversity. In a recent study of the European Commission on this issue, 83 % of companies with diversity policies say that these bring real benefits to their business, such as tapping into a wider pool of potential employees, improving staff motivation and benefiting from more innovative workforces. In a competitive global market, a culturally diverse workforce can help companies to develop their products and services to exploit new markets.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to officially launch the Year of Equal Opportunities for All and wish the Authority well in this endeavour. I would encourage everyone to engage in the activities and events and, most importantly, to make fairness and tolerance a feature of our
day-to-day lives as a lasting legacy of this European Year.
Thank you.
ENDS.